Speaking at a CEO roundtable discussion at the PLANSPONSOR
National Conference, Elaine Sarsynski, EVP of MassMutual’s Retirement Services
Division, said she encourages plan sponsors and advisers to focus on plan
health and plan action. “The question I always like to ask a plan sponsor or adviser
is, do you know how many people in your plan are on track to retire with 75%monthly
replacement income at age 67?”

Christine Marcks, President, Prudential Retirement said the
new focus for plan sponsors is on longevity. “People are beginning to recognize
that there is a much higher likelihood that they are going to spend 25 to 35
years in retirement, and that’s the scary factor here. [Defined contribution] plans
were not initially designed to solve for that risk. There is growing interest, and growing recognition,
that this is something that we need to do, and that plan structure needs to
solve.”

Pat Murphy, managing director and head of distribution for
New York Life Retirement Plan Services, added that “there is an opportunity to
use technology for us as an industry and to stop looking at your employee as a
participant in a 401(k) plan that we are managing, and to use technology and
aggregation tools to understand the individual as a whole person.” Murphy
referenced, for instance, that many participants have what some call “yapping
dogs” or assets in other plans that need to be considered when evaluatingretirement readiness.

Technology

With technology having already altered the delivery methods
of statements, disclosures and how participants access their plans, Alison Cooke
Mintzer, global editor-in-chief of PLANSPONSOR, asked how technology will be
used to improve outcomes.Marcks said the
guiding principle is to go mobile.A
recent survey indicated 55% of adults use smartphones in some capacity—triple
the number from last year. “We’ve been focusing on engaging with participants
and we’ve done studies on how to engage the Millennium generation with
gamification techniques. This will change over time but this is the direction
we’re going in now. We’ve also become engaged in virtual and online
communities.”

Murphy says, “With technology it’s imperative that we create
better outcomes and not just make the process simpler for us and make us more
profitable. That would be selfish. Human interaction is critical to get participants
comfortable to make decisions. We will deploy video chat for those who contact our
call center, in the absence of an adviser—they want to look at somebody and
have a trusted conversation.”

Sarsynski says MassMutual looks at technology as “easier,
faster, and cheaper for plan sponsors, advisers and participants. We need to
get those motivated moments so that participants can take action so that we can
ensure that they retire on their terms. That’s how we go to work each day and
that’s how we use technology.”

Exchange Programs

The panelists discussed the emerging idea of a retirement
benefits exchange. For example some
small-to-medium sized companies are considering in the future offering
employees a stipend, and, similar to health benefit offerings, have them choose
what would work best for them as individuals. A program such as this may help
drive down escalating costs for smaller businesses.